The Cullens read the Twilight Saga:Twilight
by musicmadgirl22
Summary: The Cullen family read Twilight. The Cullens have travelled the world for 5 years and have now returned. Set 5 years after Breaking Dawn. This is the first story out of five as Midnight Sun will be included as part of the "Twilight Saga". Rated t for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys. This is my first fanfic so hope you like it. Stephenie Meyer owns the charaters and stuff in bold. The rest is my own. Enjoy :)**

* * *

It had been 5 years since Bella had last lived in Forks, Washington. 7 years since Bella moved in with Charlie and found the love of her life. After a 5 year vacation, she and her family were now going back home.

Someone grabbing Bella round the waist brought her back from her thoughts. She turned round to see Edward standing there with a glint in his eye.

"Come on honey, time to go." he said. Bella pulled him closer to her and he kissed her head.

"Time to go home." she agreed.

Bella went outside and got in the car. She turned round to see Renesmee bouncing in her seat. Bella turned round with a smile on her face as Edward got in and followed everyone else to Forks.

By the time they got to Forks it was late so they sorted out the luggage. After that Bella, Edward and Renesmee ran to their cottage.

Bella and Edward said goodnight to Renesmee then they cleaned the entire cottage. By morning it looked as good as new.

As soon as Renesmee had woken up the three of them went to the main house to see everyone.

In the morning everyone helped to clean the massive house and in the afternoon Bella went to the library to look at all the books that she would have time to read.

She got halfway through the third bookcase when she came across a book set that had not yet been opened. It had five books in it. They were called: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and Midnight Sun.

Bella took of the cellophane and took the first book, Twilight. There was an extract from the book. It said:

**About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him-and I don't know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.**

Bella screamed. Surely it couldn't be talking about her Edward? In a moment he was by her side trying to calm her down. He kept on kissing her head as he muttered "Calm down. It`s ok." over and over again. Thanks to Edward and Jasper, Bella managed to finally calm down.

"What was wrong?" Edward asked as he carried Bella downstairs into the living room where the rest of the family was waiting. As soon as Edward set Bella down their daughter ran up to her mother and gave her a long hug to check Bella was ok. Bella didn't answer Edward`s question. Jasper walked in then with the books and put them on the coffee table. Bella reached out, picked up Twilight and handed it to Edward. He turned the book over and read the extract. When he had finished reading it he slowly lowered it from his face and returned it to the coffee table where everyone began to read it.

Bella still couldn't talk so she lifted her shield and talked to her husband that way. "_Do you think that maybe it`s about us?_"

"There`s only one way to find out and that is to read the books" Edward replied.

By that point everyone, including Renesmee, had read the extract.

"Let's read them now!" Renesmee squealed. She loved hearing stories about her family and this topped it off as it was about her parents.

Reluctantly, Bella picked up Twilight and cleared her throat. "Let's do this" she mumbled.

* * *

**So here you are. Hope you liked it. Hope to update by Wednesday. Review please! Any ideas will be taken onboard as I continue to write. See ya :)**

**musicmadgirl22**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys. Thanks for viewing this story. I`ve already had nearly 100 views. I decided to thank you guys by updating early. Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Preface**,Bella began. **I`d never given much thought to how I would die.**

This received several hisses.

"What a cheerful beginning" Emmett sighed. He earned a smack on the back of the head from Rosalie for that.

**-though I'd had** **reason enough in the last few months-but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.**

This time only Edward hissed. Bella put a reassuring hand on his knee and continued to read.

**I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.**

At the mention of James, Edward stiffened and let out a long warning growl. Renesmee, who had never seen her father quite like this before, snuggled closer into her mother. As soon as Edward realised that his daughter was scared of him, he relaxed a little and opened his arms for his daughter and she threw herself onto him.

**Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved.**

At that moment all of the females in the room, besides Bella, "awwed". Edward moved Renesmee into a comfortable position on his lap so he could hug Bella closer to him.

**Noble, even. That ought to count for something. I knew that if I`d never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now.**

"But I wouldn't have met you guys." Bella added, smiling round at her family.

**But terrified as I was, I couldn`t bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it`s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.**

Renesmee was shouting in her head "_Please let Mom come out of here alive. Please let her be ok._" over and over again. Edward gave her a reassuring kiss on her head and hugged her closer to him.

**The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.**

"What, no faith in us at all?" Emmett asked, pretending to be shocked.

"I was hoping Edward would have listened to what I told him in that letter." Bella replied, staring at her husband.

"Mom, can you keep on reading please?" Renesmee pleaded.

"I can`t darling. It`s the end of the chapter."

"Fuck that" Renesmee muttered under her breath; however it was just loud enough for her father to hear. He gave his daughter a stern look and she became quiet.

"I`ll read next." Edward offered.

Bella nodded and handed her husband the book.

* * *

**So how was that? I think I did ok but I`d like to hear that from you guys. Reviews mean so much to me so please review. I will try to update by the weekend as this is getting harder to come up with ideas for/finding time to actually write. If you have any ideas please let me know. See you soon**

**musicmadgirl22**


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guys. Sorry I haven`t updated in a while. Basically I write it down before I type it up but I have decided just to go for it because overwise it takes to long. This chapter in it`s self is quite long so having to write it out twice just takes forever. Hope you enjoy and I`ll see you at the bottom!

* * *

**First Sight **Edward read. **My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue.**

"That sounds like a beautiful place. Can we go there?" Renesmee asked, looking hopefully at her father.

"Maybe. We`ll have to see." It was Bella that answered her daughter.

**I was wearing my favourite shirt ****‒ sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.**

"Say anything about my fashion sense, Alice, and you will regret it," Bella told her sister hotly.

Alice, seeing what Bella was planning to do, nodded.

**In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old.**

"Dramatic much?" Emmett muttered.

Bella heard him and threw a pillow right in his face. "Pain in my ar… backside much?" Bella replied trying not to swear in front of her daughter.

**It was in this town that I`d been compelled to spend a month of every summer until I was fourteen. That was the year I put my foot down; these past three summers, my dad, Charlie, vacationed with me in California for two weeks instead.**

"I don`t get it," Renesmee said, staring at her mother. "Why didn`t you want to come to Forks if Daddy was living here?"

Edward chuckled at his daughter. "I hadn`t been living here for that long and your mom hadn`t met me yet."

"Oh."

Edward chucked again at his daughter.

**It was to Forks that I now exiled myself ****‒ an action that I took with great horror. I detested Forks.**

"But now I love it here so much it`s now home." Bella smiled up at her husband and they snuggled closer together. Edward planted a kiss on the top of Bella`s head.

**I loved Phoenix. I loved the sun and the blistering heat. I loved the vigorous, sprawling city.**

"**Bella," my mom said to me ‒ the last of a thousand times ‒ before I got on the plane. "You don`t have to do this."**

"Why do I get the idea that you`re going to tell your mom it`s no big deal and not to worry?" Renesmee wondered. That was greeted by lots of chuckles.

**My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic, hare-brained mother to fend for herself? Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still…**

"Are you sure you were Renée`s daughter?" Esme asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Bella questioned.

"It just seems like you take care of Renée, not the other way round."

Bella just shrugged.

"**I want to go," I lied. I`d always been a bad liar, but I`d been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now.**

"Why do I find this hard to believe?" Alice questioned.

"Because Bella can`t act, lie…" Emmett counted down on his fingers but was cut short as another pillow connected with his face. "Bella…" he whined.

"Can it Em." Bella warned.

"**Tell Charlie I said hi."**

"**I will."**

"**I`ll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want ‒ I`ll come back right back as soon as you need me." But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.**

"**Don`t worry about me," I urged. "It`ll be great. I love you mom."**

**She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone.**

"I still miss her," Bella sighed.

Edward pulled his wife closer and kissed her head, cheek and finally her lips.

**It`s a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive back down to Forks. Flying doesn`t bother me; the hour in the car with Charlie, though, I was a little worried about.**

"Why would you be worried about that?" Carlisle asked.

"It meant going in his police cruiser and it was just awkward."

Carlisle just nodded.

**Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He`d already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car. But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn`t know what to say regardless. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision ‒**

"Why would he be confused?" Renesmee wondered.

**like my mother before me, I hadn`t made a secret of my distaste for Forks.**

"Oh."

**When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn`t see it as an omen ‒ just unavoidable. I`d already said my goodbyes to the sun.**

"Over dramatic much?" Emmett said again.

Bella didn`t even have to touch the pillow next to her, just reach out for it, in order for Emmett to get the message.

**Charlie was waiting for me with the cruiser. This I was expecting, too. Charlie is Police Chief Swan to the good people of Forks. My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop.**

"It was better than your sorry excuse of a truck," Rosalie muttered.

"Don`t diss the truck," Bella warned her sister.

**Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane. "It`s good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied me.**

Everyone laughed at that. Bella glared at them.

"**You haven`t changed much. How`s Renée?"**

"**Mom`s fine. It`s good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn`t allowed to call him Charlie to his face. I only had a few bags.**

"Bella!" Alice whined.

**Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the cruiser.**

"Bella!" Alice whined again.

"**I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in.**

"Why did Grandpa say "good car for you"?" Renesmee asked.

"It probably will explain later on," Bella answered her.

"**What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you" as opposed to just "good car."**

"You are so your mother`s daughter," Edward chuckled.

"**Well, it`s a truck actually, a Chevy."**

"**Where did you find it?"**

"**Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast."**

"**No."**

Edward and Emmett had to hide their laughs as coughs.

"Aw…Bella forgot about the mutt!"

That caused more laughter and Bella did something very childish and stuck her tongue out at Emmett.

"**He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted. That would explain why I didn`t remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory.**

"How is fishing a painful or unnecessary thing?" Carlisle asked.

"It bored me. I wasn`t into fishing like my dad. It meant sitting in the rain for hours trying to get something I wasn`t even going to eat."

"**He`s in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn`t respond, "so he can`t drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap."**

"Probably wasn`t cheap enough for that piece of shit," Rosalie mumbled.

"Language!" Esme shouted at her daughter.

"**What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn`t ask. "Well, Billy`s done a lot of work on the engine ‒ it`s only a few years old really."**

"That`s not a good enough answer for Mom," Renesmee thought aloud. "She`s going to want more information. She won`t give up that easily."

**I hoped he didn`t think so little of me as to believe that I would give up that easily. "When did he buy it?"**

Edward shook his head at how easily Renesmee could figure out Bella.

"**He brought it in 1984, I think."**

"**Did he buy it new?"**

"**Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties ‒ or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly.**

"**Ch-Dad, I don`t really know anything about cars."**

"I`ll change that!" Rosalie cried.

"Can`t wait," Bella groaned.

"**I wouldn`t be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and I couldn`t afford a mechanic…"**

"**Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don`t build them like that anymore."**

"Thank God for that," Rosalie muttered. All of her siblings nodded in agreement, including Edward.

"Stop picking on the truck!" Bella shouted at them.

**The thing I thought to myself… it had possibilities ‒ as a nickname, at the very least.**

"**How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn`t compromise on.**

"Not cheap enough," Rosalie muttered. Lucky for her Bella didn`t hear.

"**Well, honey, I kind of already brought it for you. As a homecoming gift."**

"That was nice of him," Esme noted.

"I bet Mom wants to give Grandpa some money for the truck," Renesmee commented again.

**Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression. Wow. Free.**

"**You didn`t need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car."**

"See." Renesmee had a smug look on her face.

"**I don`t mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn`t comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded.**

"**That`s really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being in Forks is an impossibility.**

"Was an impossibility," Bella corrected her past-self.

**He didn`t need to suffer along with me. And I never looked a free truck in the mouth ‒ or engine.**

"**Well, now, your welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks. We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was it for conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.**

"I can see what you meant by "awkward,"" Carlisle told Bella.

**It was beautiful, of course; I couldn`t deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered in moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered in ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves. It was two green ‒ an alien planet.**

Esme gave Bella a sympathetic look. Bella smiled back.

**Eventually we made it to Charlie`s. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he`d brought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had ‒ the early ones. There, parked on the street in front of the house that never changed, was my new ‒ well, new to me ‒ truck. It was a faded red colour, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it. I didn`t know if it would run, but I could see myself in it.**

At that Rosalie smacked her forehead and muttered something along the lines of "useless."

**Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged ‒ the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed.**

"Just as well considering you were a danger magnet and all…" Edward muttered to himself; however Bella heard him and smacked him playfully on the arm. She then stole what was supposed to be a short kiss but turned out to be the exact opposite. They stopped when they noticed Renesmee making puking noises to Emmett.

"**Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!"**

**Now my horrific day tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful. I wouldn`t be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief`s cruiser.**

"**I`m glad you like it," Charlie said gruffly, embarrassed again.**

**It took only one trip to get all my stuff upstairs.**

"Bella!" Alice shrieked.

Bella ignored her and motioned for Edward to keep reading.

**I got the west bedroom that faced over the front yard. The room was familiar; it had belonged to me since I was born. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellow lace curtains around the windows ‒** **these were all part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a bed and adding a desk as I grew. The desk now held a second hand computer, with the phone line for the modem stapled along the floor to the nearest phone jack. This was a stipulation from my mother, so that we could stay in touch easily. The rocking chair from my baby days was still in the corner.**

"I liked that rocking chair very much," Edward stated.

"Same here," Bella agreed with her husband.

Edward then kissed her on the top of her head and continued reading.

**There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which I would have to share with Charlie. I was trying not to dwell too much on that fact.**

Bella got sympathetic looks from all the older females as of course Renesmee didn`t understand.

**One of the best things about Charlie is that he doesn`t hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother. It was nice to be alone and not have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out of the window at the sheeting rain and just let a few tears escape.**

Esme gave me another sympathetic look. Bella got the idea that she`d get a lot more of them before this book was over.

**I wasn`t in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, when I would have to think about the coming morning. Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven ‒ now fifty-eight ‒ students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home. All of the kids here had grown up together ‒ their grandparents had been toddlers together. I would be the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak.**

Everyone except Bella cracked up laughing at that.

"Well how was I supposed to know you freaks went their?" Bella said, trying to defend herself.

**Maybe, if I looked like a girl from Phoenix should, I could work this to my advantage. But physically, I`d never be able to fit in anywhere. I should be tan, sporty, blond ‒ a volleyball player, or a cheerleader, perhaps ‒ all the things that go with living in the valley of the sun.**

"Honey, you couldn`t have played sports even if you tried," Edward told Bella. Bella tried to slap him but he caught her wrists and they kissed again, only this was deeper, more passionate and much longer.

**Instead I was ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine. I had always been slender, but soft somehow, obviously not an athlete; I didn`t have the necessary hand-eye coordination to play sports without humiliating myself ‒ and harming both myself and anyone else who stood too close.**

Edward snickered remembering the time Bella had managed to harm herself and Mike Newton whilst playing a game of badminton. Everyone just stared at Edward as if he had gone completely mental.

"You`ll find out later in the book," he explained.

**When I finished putting my clothes in the old pine dresser, I took my bag of bathroom necessities and went to the communal bathroom to clean myself up after the day of travel. I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed through my tangled, damp hair. Maybe it was the light, but I already looked shallower, unhealthy.**

Esme gave Bella another sympathetic look.

**My skin could be pretty**

"You have always been beautiful," Edward told his wife as he kissed her on the cheek.

‒ **it was very clear, almost translucent-looking ‒ but it all depended on colour. I had no colour here. Facing my pallid reflection in the mirror, I was forced to admit that I was lying to myself. It wasn`t just physically that I`d never fit in. And if I couldn`t find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here?**

"Well considering the fact that you consider yourself a freak and we are the biggest freaks alive then I`d say you have a pretty good chance!" Emmett laughed.

Everyone rolled their eyes at Emmett`s childish behaviour.

**I didn`t relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn`t relate well to people, period. Even my mother, who I was closer to than anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never exactly on the same page.**

Esme gave Bella yet another of her famous sympathetic looks.

**Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world were seeing through theirs.**

"Why?" Renesmee asked.

"Let's just say your mother didn`t have normal human reactions. You`ll probably find that out yourself as we progress through the book," Carlisle answered his grand-daughter.

**Maybe there was a glitch in my brain. But the cause didn`t matter. All that mattered was the effect. And tomorrow would be just the beginning. I didn`t sleep well that night, even after I was done crying.**

Esme moved next to Bella and let her mothering instincts take over as she gave Bella the comfort she needed all those years ago.

**The constant whooshing of the rain and wind across the roof wouldn`t fade into the background. I pulled the faded old quilt over my head and later added the pillow, too. But I couldn`t fall asleep until after midnight, when the rain finally settled into a quieter drizzle.**

Seeing Bella suffer for whatever it was made Esme sob quietly to herself as Bella and Carlisle tried to comfort her.

**Thick fog was all I could see out of my window in the morning, and I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up on me. You could never see the sky here; it was like a cage.**

Bella and Carlisle were unsuccessful in calming down Esme so Jasper sent a wave of calmness towards her. Esme gave a thankful smile to Jasper.

**Breakfast with Charlie was a quiet event. He wished me good luck at school. I thanked him, knowing his hope was wasted. Good luck tended to avoid me.**

"I changed my mind when I met you," Bella told Edward.

"I didn`t," Edward muttered under his breath.

**Charlie left first, off to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, I sat at the square oak table in one of the three unmatching chairs and examined his small kitchen, with its dark panelled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor. Nothing was changed. My mother had painted the cabinets eighteen years ago in an attempt to bring some sunshine into the house. Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized family room was a row of pictures.**

Edward smiled when he read about the pictures. It had been a way he learnt more about Bella and her family.

**First a wedding picture of Charlie and my mom in Las Vegas, then one of the three of us in the hospital after I was born, taken by a helpful nurse, followed by the procession of my school pictures up to last year`s. Those were embarrassing to look at ‒ I would have to see what I could do to get Charlie to put them somewhere else, at least whilst I was living here.**

"I was wondering why I didn`t remember those photos," Edward chucked to himself.

**It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over my mom. It made me uncomfortable.**

"Poor Charlie," Esme whispered to herself.

**I didn`t want to be too early to school, but I couldn`t stay in the house anymore. I donned my jacket ‒ which had the feel of a biohazard suit ‒ and headed out into the rain.**

Esme gave me her glance and gave me an encouraging smile.

**It was just drizzling still, not enough to soak me through immediately as I reached for the house key that was always hidden under the eaves by the door, and locked up. The sloshing of my new waterproof boots was unnerving ‒ I missed the normal crunch of gravel as I walked.**

"I don`t miss it anymore," Bella told her family. "It`s the gravel that unnerves me now."

**I couldn`t pause and admire my truck again as I wanted; I was in a hurry to get out of the misty wet that swirled around my head and clung to my hair under my hood.**

"You wanted to admire that piece of crap?" Rosalie blurted out.

"Rosalie! Not in front of Renesmee!" Esme scolded her.

**Inside the truck, it was nice and dry. Either Billy or Charlie had obviously cleaned it up, but the tan upholster seats still smelled faintly of tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint. The engine started quickly, to my relief, but loudly, roaring to life and then idling at top volume. Well a truck this old was bound to have a flaw.**

"The whole thing was a flaw!" Rosalie screamed.

"Don`t mess with the truck," Bella snarled.

Edward and Emmett both put a restraining arm around each of their wives shoulders in order to stop them from fighting.

**The antique radio worked, a plus that I hadn`t expected. Finding the school wasn`t difficult, though I`d never been there before. The school was, like most other things, just off the highway. It was not obvious that it was a school; only the sign, which declared it to be the Forks High School, made me stop. It looked like a collection of matching houses, built with maroon-coloured bricks. There were so many trees and shrubs I couldn`t see its size at first. Where was the feel of the institution? I wondered nostalgically. Where were the chain-link fences, the metal detectors?**

"You had all that at your school in Phoenix?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah. It was necessary."

Edward just shook his head.

**I parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading front office. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off limits, but I decided I would get directions inside instead of circling around in the rain like an idiot. I stepped unwillingly out of the toasty truck cab and walked down a little stone path lined with dark hedges. I took a deep breath before opening the door. Inside, it was brightly lit, and warmer than I`d hoped. The office was small; a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly.**

"Seriously Bella. How observant can you get?" Carlisle asked her.

"A lot more, believe me," Edward answered.

**Plants grew everywhere in large plastic pots, as if there wasn`t enough greenery outside.**

"You didn`t like plants?" Alice asked Bella.

"No, I just wasn`t used to it."

**The room was cut in half by a long counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly coloured flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a large, red-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a purple t-shirt, which immediately made me feel overdressed.**

"Bella, you never overdress, unless I`m the one dressing you," Alice stated.

Everyone else laughed.

**The red-haired woman looked up. "Can I help you?"**

"**I`m Isabella Swan," I informed her, and saw the immediate awareness light her eyes. I was expected, a topic of gossip no doubt.**

"You have no idea," Edward informed his wife.

**Daughter of the Chief`s flighty ex-wife, come home at last.**

"**Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk till she found the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedule right here, and a map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show me. She went through my classes for me, highlighting the best route to each on the map, and gave me a slip to have each teacher to sign, which I was to bring back at the end of the day. She smiled at me and hoped, like Charlie, that I would like it here in Forks. I smiled back as convincingly as I could.**

Esme put a reassuring arm around Bella wishing Edward acted like a gentleman when he first met Bella. She didn`t see him cringe when she thought that.

**When I went back out to my truck, other students were starting to arrive. I drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad that most of the cars were older like mine, nothing flashy. At home I`d lived in one of the few lower-income neighbourhoods that** **were included in the Paradise Valley District. It was a common thing to see a new Mercedes or Porsche in the student lot. The nicest car here was a shiny Volvo, and it stood out.**

"Thanks honey," Edward smiled.

"You guys did a rubbish job at blending in," Bella told them.

**Still, I cut the engine as soon as I was in a spot, so that the thunderous volume wouldn`t draw attention to me.**

"Bella, honey, as soon as people noticed your car they paid attention to you," Edward told her.

Bella just groaned.

**I looked at the map in the truck, trying to memorize it now; hopefully I wouldn`t have to walk around with it stuck in front of my nose all day. I stuffed everything in my bag, slung the strap over my shoulder, and sucked in a huge breath. I can do this, I lied to myself feebly.**

"You can`t even lie to yourself?" Emmett hollered at the top of his voice.

"It gets better," Edward told his brother, as he had already read the next sentence in his head.

Emmett clapped his hands together like a little four-year-old.

**No one was going to bite me.**

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know a family of crazy vampires went to the school?" Bella protested.

As soon as Edward had gained control of himself he continued.

**I finally exhaled and stepped out of the truck. I kept my face pulled back into my hood as I walked to the sidewalk crowded with teenagers. My plain black jacket didn`t stand out, I noticed with relief. Once I got around the cafeteria, building three was easy to spot.**

"Well, duh. It`s the building with the large "3" on it!" Emmett joked.

**A large black "3" was painted on a white square on the east corner. I felt my breathing gradually creeping towards hyperventilation as I approached the door. I tried holding my breath as I followed two unisex raincoats through the door. The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a porcelain-coloured blonde, the other also pale with light brown hair. At least my skin wouldn`t be a standout here.**

"But my skin wouldn`t have stood out anyway." Emmett gave her a questioning look. "You freaks were way paler than me!" Bella laughed.

**I took the slip up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked when he saw my name ‒ not an encouraging response ‒ and of course I flushed tomato red.**

"I miss seeing you blush," Edward told her. Bella snuggled closer to him.

**But at least he sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner.**

"I bet ten bucks Bella has already read everything!" No one took Emmett up on his bet.

**I`d already read everything. That was comforting… and boring. I wondered if my mom would send me my folder of old essays, or if she would think that was cheating.**

"Bella thinking of cheating? What is the world coming to?" Emmett laughed.

**I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher droned on. When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with skin problems and hair black as an oil slick leaned across the aisle to talk to me.**

"Eric," the younger Cullen`s, except Renesmee, groaned.

"**You`re Isabella Swan, aren`t you?" He looked like the overly helpful, chess club type.**

"**Bella," I corrected. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look at me.**

"**Where`s your next class?" he asked.**

**I had to check my bag. **

"**Um, Government, with Jefferson, in building six."**

**There was nowhere to look without meeting curious eyes. "I`m headed towards building four, I could show you the way…"**

**Definitely over-helpful.**

Everyone chuckled at that.

"**I`m Eric," he added.**

**I smiled tentatively. "Thanks."**

**We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up. I could have sworn several people behind us were walking close enough to eavesdrop. I hoped I wasn`t getting paranoid.**

"No. They were eavesdropping," Edward told Bella.

Bella just sighed.

"**So, this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" he asked.**

"**Very."**

"**It doesn`t rain much there, does it?"**

"**Three or four times a year."**

"**Wow, what must that be like?" he wondered.**

"**Sunny," I told him.**

"I believe that was a rhetorical question." Carlisle chuckled.

"**You don`t look very tan."**

"**My mother is part albino."**

**He studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. It looked like clouds and a sense of humour didn`t mix. A few months of this and I`d forget how to use sarcasm. We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south buildings by the gym. Eric walked me right to the door, though it was clearly marked.**

"He was definitely over-helpful," Bella muttered.

"**Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we`ll have some other classes together." He sounded hopeful. I smiled at him vaguely and went inside.**

"If you describe each class in that much detail then I`ll die," Renesmee huffed.

Bella just shook her head at her daughter.

**The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. My Trigonometry teacher, Mr. Varner, who I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught, was the only one who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself.**

"I don`t see how that is that bad," Esme said to herself.

**I stammered, blushed, and tripped over my own boots on the way to my seat.**

Everyone burst into fits of laughter, including Bella.

"That doesn`t sound like Mom," Renesmee said.

"Believe me, baby, I was a clumsy klutz," her mom giggled.

**After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot.**

"Oh Bella." Esme pulled Bella into a hug.

**At least I never needed the map. One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I couldn`t remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she prattled on about teachers and classes. I didn`t try to keep up.**

When Renesmee stared at her mother she simply answered, "I wasn`t into gossip like you." This seemed to be a good enough answer as Renesmee looked at her father expectantly.

**We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from across the room. It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them.**

"Yay! It`s us!" Emmett looked like the biggest kid ever when he said that.

Bella just shook her head at him.

**They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren`t talking, and they weren`t eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren`t gawking at me like the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention. They didn`t look anything alike. Of the tree boys, one was big-muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. Another was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blonde. The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy, bronze-coloured hair.**

"Daddy!" Renesmee cried out picturing the description.

**He was more boyish than the others who looked like they could be in collage, even teachers here rather than students.**

"How are you so observant?" Carlisle asked Bella.

She just shrugged.

**The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the **_**Sports Illustrated**_** swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie like,**

Everyone laughed at Alice`s description but Alice laughed the loudest.

**thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing out in every direction. And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than me, the albino. They all had very dark eyes despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows under those eyes ‒ purplish, bruise like shadows. As if they were all suffering from a sleepless night,**

"Several years of sleepless nights actually," Edward joked.

Bella just rolled her eyes.

**or almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though their noses, like all their features, were straight, perfect, angular. But all this is not why I couldn`t look away. I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful ‒ maybe the perfect blonde girl,**

"Oh Bella," Rosalie smiled at her.

**or the bronze-haired boy.**

"Thank you," Edward whispered to Bella as he kissed the top of her head.

**They were all looking away ‒ away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray ‒ unopened soda, unbitten apple ‒ and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on the runway. I watched, amazed at her little dancer`s step, till she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible.**

"Shit," Alice muttered. "I could have sworn I walked at human pace."

**My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging.**

"**Who are they?" I asked the girl from my Spanish class, whose name I`d forgotten. As she looked up to see who I meant ‒ though already knowing, probably, from my tone ‒ suddenly he looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish one, the youngest perhaps. He looked at my neighbour for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to mine.**

"Why did you do that?" Renesmee asked.

"I couldn`t hear any of your mothers thoughts. I thought that maybe making eye contact would help," Edward shrugged.

**He looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief glance his face held nothing of interest ‒ it was as if she had called his name, and he`d looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer. My neighbour giggled in embarrassment, looking at the table like I did.**

"**That`s Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife," she said under her breath.**

**I glanced sideways at the beautiful boy, who was looking at his tray now, picking a bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers. His mouth was moving very quickly, his perfect lips barely opening. The other three still looked away, and yet I felt he was speaking quietly to them.**

"I was," Edward confirmed.

**Strange, unpopular names, I thought. The kinds of names grandparents had.**

"Well I`d say I`m old enough to be your great-grandparent!" Emmett joked.

**But maybe that was in vogue here ‒ small town names? I finally remembered that my neighbour was called Jessica, a perfectly common name. There were two girls named Jessica in my history class back home.**

"**They are…very nice-looking." I struggled with the conspicuous understatement.**

"How else would you have described us?" Jasper asked speaking for what felt like the first time.

"Oh I don`t know. Beautiful…gorgeous…godlike…"

"Ok. Who else noticed that she was only looking at Edward when she said that?" Emmett wondered aloud.

Bella stuck her tongue out at Emmett and idly began to play with Edward`s hair.

"**Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They`re all **_**together**_** though ‒ Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they **_**live **_**together." Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. But, if I was being honest, I had to admit that even in Phoenix, it would cause gossip.**

"Why would it cause gossip?" asked Renesmee. "I mean the people dating aren`t related."

"I think that it was the fact that usually people that date don`t live in the same house unless they are out of school and thinking about getting engaged," Bella explained.

"**Which ones are the Cullens?" I asked. "They don`t look related…"**

"**Oh, they`re not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They`re all adopted. The Hales **_**are **_**brother and sister, twins ‒ the blondes ‒ and they`re foster children."**

"**They look a little old for foster children."**

"**They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they`ve been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight or something like that."**

"**That`s really kind of nice ‒ for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they`re so young and everything."**

"Thank you Bella, however I don`t think the word young covers us and hasn`t in quite some time," Esme smiled.

"**I guess so," Jessica admitted reluctantly, and I got the impression that she didn`t like the doctor and his wife for some reason. With the glances she was throwing at their adopted children, I would presume the reason was jealousy. "I think that Mrs. Cullen can`t have any kids though," she added, as if that lessened their kindness.**

**Throughout all this conversation, my eyes flickered again and again to the table where the strange family sat. They continued to look at the walls and not eat.**

"**Have they always lived in Forks?" I asked. Surely I would have noticed them on one of my summers here.**

"**No," she said in a voice that implied it should be obvious, even to a new arrival like me. "They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska."**

"You two meeting and falling in love was meant to happen. It must have been fate," breathed Renesmee. Like her mother, Renesmee loved reading, especially romance.

"Yes," Bella agreed with her daughter. "I believe your right," and she kissed Renesmee`s forehead and pulled Edward closer to her.

**I felt a surge of pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that I wasn`t the only newcomer here, and certainly not the most interesting by any standard.**

"I strongly disagree," Edward whispered in Bella`s ear.

**As I examined them, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that his glance held some kind of unmet expectation.**

"**Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I asked.**

**I peeked at him from the corner of my eye, and he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had today ‒ he had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.**

"**That's Edward. He`s gorgeous, of course, but don`t waste your time. He doesn`t date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him."**

"No one was," Edward turned to Bella. "but you were too perfect for me." He leaned down and kissed her.

**She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he`d turned her down.**

"The minute I walked through the door," Edward sighed.

**I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at him again. His face was turned away, but I thought his cheek appeared lifted, as if he were smiling too. After a few more minutes, the four of them left the table together. They all were noticeably graceful ‒ even the big, brawny one. It was unsettling to watch. The one named Edward didn`t look at me again. I sat at the table with Jessica longer than I would have if I`d been sitting alone. I was anxious not to be late on my first day. One of my new acquaintances, who considerately reminded me that her name was Angela, Had Biology II with me next hour.**

"I liked her," Edward mumbled, playing with a stray piece of Bella`s hair.

**We walked to class together in silence. She was shy, too. When we entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a blacktopped lab table exactly like the ones I was used to. She already had a neighbour. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the centre aisle, I recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting next to that single open seat.**

"Then you sit next to him, Daddy realises that he loves you and askes you out and you live happily ever after!" Renesmee finished.

"Well not exactly…" Edward told her, running a nervous hand through his hair. "I wish it was," he mumbled so no one could hear.

**As I walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get my slip signed, I was watching him surreptitiously. Just as I passed, he suddenly went rigid in his seat.**

"The fan was blowing your sent in my direction," he apologised.

**He stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face ‒ it was hostile, furious. I looked away quickly, shocked, going red again. I stumbled over a book in the walkway and had to catch myself on the edge of a table. The girls sitting there giggled. I`d noticed that his eyes were black ‒ coal black. Mr. Bamer signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about introductions. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course he had no choice but to send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room. I kept my eyes down as I went to sit by **_**him**_**, bewildered by the antagonistic stare he`d given me. I didn`t look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and adverting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favourite shampoo. It seemed an innocent enough odour.**

"Silly Bella," Emmett joked. "It wasn`t that you smelled bad, it was because you smelled extremely good!"

This scared Renesmee and she looked at her father hoping that he wouldn`t lose control. Noticing this Bella pulled her daughter closer to her and whispered comforting words to her whilst rubbing her back as Edward sent daggers raining at Emmett for scaring Renesmee.

**I let my hair fall over my right shoulder, making a dark curtain between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher. Unfortunately the lecture was on cellular anatomy, something I`d already studied. I took notes carefully anyway, always looking down. I couldn`t stop myself from peaking occasionally through the screen of my hair at the strange boy next to me. During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg was clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too,** **he never relaxed. He had the long sleeves of his white shirt pushed up to his elbows, and his forearm was surprisingly hard and muscular beneath his light skin.**

"Why thank you," Edward mumbled.

**He wasn`t nearly as slight as he`d looked next to his burly brother. The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally coming to a close, or because I was waiting for his tight fist to loosen? It never did; he continued to sit so still it looked like he wasn`t breathing.**

"I wasn`t," Edward told her.

**What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behaviour? I questioned my judgement on Jessica`s bitterness at lunch today. Maybe she was not as resentful as I`d thought. It couldn`t have anything to do with me.**

At that Emmett laughed so hard that Rosalie put a pillow over his face and leaded onto it so the sound was muffled.

**He didn`t even know me from Eve. I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase **_**if looks could kill**_** suddenly ran through my mind. At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and Edward Cullen was out of his seat. Fluidly he rose ‒ he was much taller than I`d thought ‒ his back to me, and he was out of the door before anyone else was out of their seat. I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. He was so mean. It wasn`t fair. I began gathering up my things slowly, trying to block the anger that filled me, for fear my eyes would tear up. For some reason my temper was hardwired to my tear ducts. I usually cried when I was angry, a humiliating tendency.**

"Ow!" Edward yelled as his daughter hit him repeatedly over the head with a cushion. "What was that for?" he gasped having finally wrestled the pillow away from Renesmee.

"You hurt Mom!" Renesmee yelled, close to tears. She just couldn`t understand it, her parents, who loved each other more than anything else in the whole world, had hated each other. Before she knew it she was crying.

"Renesmee…" Edward cooed trying to comfort her. When he touched her hand he saw exactly just how much his only daughter hated him. He flinched away and Renesmee snuggled into Bella trying to calm down.

Jasper, sensing his niece's distress, sent a calm wave over to her and she gave him a sad smile of thanks.

"**Aren`t you Isabella Swan?" a male voice asked. I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his pale blonde hair carefully gelled into orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. He obviously didn`t think I smelled bad.**

"You could never smell bad," Edward told Bella as he inhaled the scent of her hair. It helped him to relax and calm down.

"**Bella," I corrected him, with a smile.**

"**I`m Mike."**

"**Hi Mike."**

"**Do you need help finding you next class?"**

"**I`m headed to the gym, actually. I think I can find it."**

"**That`s my next class, too." He seemed thrilled, though it wasn`t that big of a coincidence in a school this small.**

**We walked to class together; he was a chatterer ‒ he supplied most of the conversation, which made it easy for me. He`d lived in California till he was ten, so he knew how I felt about the sun. It turned out he was in my English class also. He was the nicest person I`d met today.**

"_It should`ve been you!" _Renesmee shouted over and over in her head.

Edward chanced a look at his daughter and flinched when he saw that she was staring daggers at him.

**But as we were entering the gym, he asked, "So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what? I`ve never seen him act like that."**

"_She didn`t but I might," _Renesmee thought. Edward tried to ignore what his daughter was thinking about him and it stung. It hurt him that his daughter was thinking that about him.

**I cringed. So I wasn`t the only one who had noticed. And, apparently, that **_**wasn`t **_**Edward Cullen`s usual behaviour. I decided to play dumb.**

"**Was that the boy I sat next to in Biology?" I asked artlessly.**

"It`s good to know you were always like that!" yelled Emmett. "I thought you were a great actress."

"I can`t act to save my life," Bella moaned to her daughter.

"**Yes," he said. "He looked like he was in pain or something."**

"**I don`t know," I responded. "I never spoke to him."**

"**He`s a weird guy." Mike lingered by me instead of heading to the dressing room. "If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you."**

**I smiled at him before walking through the girls` locker room door. He was friendly and clearly admiring. But it wasn`t enough to ease my irritation. The gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn`t make me dress down for today`s class. At home, only two years of P.E. were required. Here, P.E. was mandatory all four years. Forks was literally my personal hell on Earth.**

"That's a little over dramatic," Edward told Bella.

"No it wasn`t. You know how graceful I was."

"Bella, you were never graceful," Emmett laughed and then stopped because he had worked out what Bella was saying.

**I watched four volleyball games running simultaneously. Remembering how many injuries I had sustained ‒ and inflicted ‒ playing volleyball, I felt faintly nauseated.**

"Come on Mom, you can`t have been that bad," Renesmee told Bella.

"Oh but I was," Bella chuckled.

**The final bell rang at last. I walked slowly to the office to return my paperwork. The rain had drifted away, but the wind was strong, and colder. I wrapped my arms around myself. When I walked into the warm office, I almost turned around and walked back out.**

"Why Mom?" Renesmee asked.

"Just keep listening," Bella told her daughter as she snuggled closer to Edward to try and protect him from anymore oncoming attacks.

**Edward Cullen stood at the desk in front of me. I recognized again that tousled brown hair. He didn`t appear to notice the sound of my entrance. I stood and pressed against the back wall waiting for the receptionist to be free. He was arguing with her in a low, attractive voice.**

"_Mom liked you even though you hated her," _Renesmee pointed out to her father.

**I quickly picked up the gist of the argument. He was trying to trade from sixth-hour Biology to another time ‒ any other time. I just couldn`t believe that this was about me. It had to be soothing else, something that happened before I entered the Biology room. The look on his face must have been about another aggravation entirely. It was impossible that this stranger could take such a sudden, intense dislike to me. The door opened again, and the cold wind suddenly gusted through the room, rustling the papers on the desk, swirling my hair around my face. The girl who came in merely stepped to the desk, placed a note in the wire basket, and walked out again. But Edward Cullen`s back stiffened, and he turned slowly to glare at me ‒ his face was absurdly handsome ‒ with piercing, hate-filled eyes.**

Bella couldn`t hold Renesmee back fast enough. Emmett was the only one who could get Renesmee off of Edward. Emmett slung Renesmee over his shoulder and when he got over to his seat he kept her in a tight hug as he and Rosalie whispered soothing words to their niece. Jasper help to calm her and soon enough she relaxed a bit but still stared daggers at her father.

**For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms.**

"Sorry," Edward apologised. "I didn`t mean to look at you like that."

Bella kissed him lightly and whispered, "You're forgiven."

Renesmee couldn`t help but forgive her father too after her mother had forgiven him. She showed Emmett what she wanted to do and he let her go. She ran to her father and threw herself at him crying and showing him just how sorry she was for beating him up.

**The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than the freezing wind. He turned back to the receptionist.**

"**Never mind, then," he said hastily in a voice like velvet. "I can see that it`s impossible. Thank you so much for your help." And he turned on his heel without another look at me, and disappeared out the door. I went meekly to the desk, my face white for once instead of red, and handed her the signed slip.**

"**How did your first day go, dear?" the receptionist asked maternally.**

"**Fine," I lied, my voice weak. She didn`t look convinced. **

**When I got to the truck, it was almost the last car in the lot. It seemed like a heaven, already the closest thing to home I had in this damp, green hole. I sat inside for a while, just staring out the windshield blankly. But soon it was cold enough for me to need the heater, so I turned the key and the engine roared to life. I headed back to Charlie`s house, fighting tears the whole way there.**

Edward hung his head in shame. "That's it," he mumbled, trying to stop the sadness come out in his voice.

Renesmee ran up to her room and within a few minutes they could all hear her crying. This was too much for Edward as he broke down into silent sobs. Everyone went to give Edward and Bella some alone time. God knows Edward needed it.

Bella tried to comfort Edward. When he had calmed down they listened to see if Renesmee was ok. The odd sniff confirmed that she had cried herself to sleep. Edward went upstairs to watch his daughter and say his apologies to her nearly asleep self.

All Bella could think about was how Renesmee would manage her and Edward`s separation and she went to find Edward for comfort. They spent the night sitting on the sofa in Renesmee`s room trying to comfort each other over the problems that reading these books could have on their family and their love.

* * *

Ok so review and tell me what you think. Also a friend gave me the idea of adding Charlie to this story so i`m going to put it down to a vote. I`m also going to start a new story called "19 years". It`s going to be a Harry Potter fanfic and it`s going to be about the 19 year gap J K Rowling leaves in the last part of Deathly Hallows. All the votes for Charlie will be counted when I upload the first chapter of "19 years.

Thanks for reading!

musicmadgirl22

xxx


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi guys. I`d just like to say that if you don`t like the ideas in this story then don`t read it anymore. I will understand. I can`t write to please everyone. Please don`t leave me reviews or messages saying how bad my stories are. Now that`s out of the way, enjoy!**

* * *

Renesmee was awoken the next morning by the sounds of people talking coming from downstairs. She climbed out of bed and walked over to her mirror. Her hair was just a massive knot and her eyes were red and puffy from all the tears that had fallen the night before.

She sighed and had a shower. Renesmee didn`t feel like wearing any bright clothes and couldn`t be bothered to be Alice or Rosalie`s giant Barbie doll so she pulled on a pair of black jeans and a midnight blue top. Turning to the mirror yet again she tried to comb the knots out of her hair. At long last her hair was knot-free. Looking at the clock she saw that it was 8:50. She would give it a little while until she would get breakfast.

As she laid on her bed, she heard a voice that she hadn't heard in ages. Not daring to believe it, she ran down the stairs into the living room.

"Grandpa Charlie!" she cried as she launched herself at him.

"Hello Nessie. Your mother and father thought it would be a good idea for me to come over and read some books that you guys found. Do you want to explain what has happened so far?"

Renesmee nodded her head vigorously and launched into a very detailed explanation of what had happened in the chapter that they had read.

Once his granddaughter had finished, Charlie caught Bella`s eye and took her into the kitchen to have a word with her. Edward went with her as he still didn`t want to feel the rest of the anger that his daughter still wanted him to know about.

"So you think the books are about you?" Charlie asked.

"I don`t think it, I know it dad. It described everything spot on about my first day at school here. I need you here as you calm Nessie down a lot better than I can when I`m trying to defend Edward`s past actions."

Charlie nodded. Edward then spoke up.

"We thought you should come as you're on a need to know basis and we need you for when I try to protect Bella by leaving. Bella and I may not be able to relive that…" His voice broke.

Bella pulled Edward closer to her and said, "We should really go back in there so then Esme can make Nessie`s breakfast." When Charlie gave Bella a questioning look, she responded, "I locked the door."

When Renesmee had finished her breakfast, Bella got the book and handed it to Charlie. Charlie cleared his throat and began.

**Open Book**

**The next day was better…and worse. It was better because it wasn`t raining yet, though the clouds were dense and opaque. It was easier because I knew what to expect of my day. Mike came to sit by me in English, and walked me to my next class, with Chess Club Eric glaring at him all the while;**

Edward laughed at that.

**That was flattering.**

Edward`s laughter immediately stopped and he thought every instinct in his body not to growl out. He felt a hand grip his and he looked down to see Bella looking at him in a concerned way. She kissed him lightly and when she pulled away she kept muttering, "I chose you over them because I love you," over and over again.

**People didn`t look at me quite as much as they had yesterday.**

"Thank God for that," Bella sighed. "I didn`t think I could go another day being stared at like I was a zoo animal."

**I sat with a big group at lunch that included Mike, Eric, Jessica and several other people whose names and faces I now remembered. I began to feel like I was treading water, instead of drowning in it. It was worse because I was tired;**

At that Renesmee glared at her father because she thought that it was because of his behaviour that her mom couldn`t sleep and that her day was worse.

**I still couldn`t sleep with the wind echoing around the house. It was worse because Mr. Varner called on me in Trig when my hand wasn`t raised and I had the wrong answer. It was miserable because I had to play volleyball, and the one time I didn`t cringe out of the way of the ball, I hit my teammate in the head with it.**

Everyone laughed at that. Bella knew that if she was still human then her face would be the reddest that it had ever gone. She glanced at Charlie, only to find that he was trying to hide the fit of giggles that had taken over him.

**And it was worse because Edward Cullen wasn`t in school at all.**

Renesmee looked confusedly at her mother.

"I guess I might have already had a slight crush on your father at the time. Also I thought that I was the cause of his absence."

**All morning I was dreading lunch, fearing his bizarre glares. Part of me wanted to confront him and demand to know what his problem was. While I was lying sleepless in my bed, I even imagined what I would say. But I knew myself too well to think I would really have the gut to do it.**

"I`m such a coward," Bella told herself.

"You are far from it," Edward told her. "How many people would date a vampire and take the dangers that come along with it?"

**I made the Cowardly Lion look like the Terminator. But when I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica – trying to keep my eyes from sweeping the place for him, and failing entirely – I saw that his four siblings of sorts were sitting together at the same table, and he was not with them. Mike intercepted us and steered us to his table. Jessica seemed elated by the attention, and her friends quickly joined us.**

"I wonder if Mike finally realised that Jessica liked him?" Bella wondered.

**But, as I tried to listen to their easy chatter, I was terribly uncomfortable, waiting nervously for the moment he would arrive. I hoped that he would simply ignore me when he came, and prove my suspicions false. He didn`t come, and as time passed I grew more and more tense. I walked to Biology with more confidence when, by the end of lunch, he still hadn`t showed.**

"I`m sorry. I didn`t mean to make you paranoid." Edward was deeply regretting his past actions and knew he would regret more of them as they progressed through the books.

**Mike, who was taking on the qualities of a golden retriever, walked faithfully by my side to class. I held my breath at the door, but Edward Cullen wasn`t there, either. I exhaled and went to my seat. Mike followed, talking about an upcoming trip to the beach.**

Remembering the injury that Bella had received during that trip, Edward stoked her hand exactly where she had cut it.

**He lingered by my desk till the bell rang. Then he smiled at me wistfully and went to sit by a girl with braces and a bad perm. It looked like I was going to have to do something about Mike, and it wouldn`t be easy. In a town like this, where everyone lived on top of everyone else, diplomacy was essential. I had never been enormously tactful; I had no practice dealing with overly friendly boys. I was relieved that I had the desk to myself, that Edward was absent. I told myself that repeatedly. But I couldn't get rid of the nagging suspicion that I was the reason he wasn`t there.**

"It`s not your fault," Edward told her.

"So, why weren`t you in?" Charlie asked.

"I couldn`t control the demon inside of me whenever Bella was around. Her scent was overpowering and it took all my self-control not to bite her."

Concerned for his daughter, Charlie looked at her only to find that Bella was trying to keep Edward stable. Charlie finally understood what Edward and Bella meant by needing him there to keep Nessie company.

**It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn`t stop worrying that it was true. When the school day was finally done, and the blush was fading out of my cheeks from the volleyball incident, I changed quickly back into my jeans and navy blue sweater.**

"Bella!" Alice and Rose moaned at her.

"I`m not going shopping with you!" Bella yelled. "I happen to like the clothes I own and I won`t wear the clothes you buy me. It will be a waste of money."

**I hurried from the girls` locker room, pleased to find that I had successfully evaded my retriever friend for the moment. I walked swiftly out to the parking lot. It was crowded now with fleeing students. I got in my truck and dug through my bag to make sure I had what I needed. Last night I`d discovered that Charlie couldn`t cook much besides fried eggs and bacon. So I requested that I be assigned kitchen detail for the duration of my stay. He was willing enough to hand over the keys to the banquet hall.**

"I must admit, I was a little reluctant. I mean what with you being clumsy. Turns out the kitchen is the only place you don`t seem to have accidents," Charlie admitted.

**I also found out that he had no food in the house. So I had my shopping list and the cash from the jar in the cupboard labelled 'food money', and I was on my way to the Thriftway. I gunned my deafening engine to life, ignoring the heads that turned in my direction, and backed carefully into a place in the line of cars that were waiting to exit the parking lot. As I waited, trying to pretend that the ear-splitting rumble was coming from someone else`s car, I saw the two Cullens and the Hale twins getting into their car. It was a shiny new Volvo. Of course.**

"What do you mean 'of course'?" Edward asked.

"I don`t know. It might have been hinted that you guys were rich," Bella shrugged. "I don`t remember what I thought and why."

**I hadn`t noticed their clothes before – I`d been too mesmerized by their faces. Now that I looked, it was obvious that they were all dressed exceptionally well; simply, but in clothes that subtly hinted at designer origins.**

"If we hadn`t reigned Alice in we would have gone in clothes that were defiantly designer and would have stood out as if we had big neon signs above our heads," Edward joked.

**With their remarkable good looks, the style with which they carried themselves, they could have worn dishrags and pulled it off.**

"Bella, how could you think I`d do something like that?!" Alice shrieked.

**It seemed excessive for them to have both looks and money. But as far as I could tell, life worked that way most of the time. It didn`t look as if it brought them any acceptance here. No, I didn`t fully believe that. The isolation must be their desire;**

"How could you tell?" asked Jasper.

**I couldn`t imagine any door that wouldn`t be opened by that degree of beauty. They looked at my noisy truck as I passed them, just like everyone else. I kept my eyes straight forward and was relieved when I finally was free of the school grounds. The Thriftway was not far from the school, just a few streets south, off the highway. It was nice to be inside the supermarket; it felt normal.**

"How did it feel normal Mom?" Renesmee asked.

"Because it didn`t feel any different from what I did in Phoenix. There was nothing there to remind me of Forks.

**I did the shopping at home, and I fell into the pattern of the familiar task gladly. The store was big enough inside that I couldn`t hear the tapping of the rain on the roof to remind me where I was. When I got home, I unloaded all the groceries, stuffing them in wherever I could find an open space.** **I hoped Charlie wouldn`t mind.**

"Why would I mind if I gave you control of the kitchen?" Charlie wondered.

"I don`t know," Bella told him.

**I wrapped potatoes in foil and stuck them in the oven to bake, covered a steak in marinade and balanced it on top of a carton if eggs in the fridge. When I was finished with that, I took my book bag upstairs. Before starting my homework, I changed into a pair of dry sweats, pulled my damp hair up into a ponytail, and checked my e-mail for the first time. I had three messages.**

"**Bella," my mom wrote…**

**Write me as soon as you get in. Tell me how your flight was. Is it raining? I miss you already. I`m almost finished packing for Florida, but I can`t find my pink blouse. Do you know where I put it? Phil says hi. Mom.**

Hearing the thoughts of her mom saddened Bella. She hadn`t seen her mom in years and wouldn`t be able to see her again because her mom would notice that she hadn`t changed in the slightest. Sensing that Bella was upset, Edward put a comforting arm round her.

**I sighed and went onto the next. It was sent eight hours after the first.**

"**Bella," she wrote…**

**Why haven`t you e-mailed me yet? What are you waiting for? Mom.**

**The last was from this morning.**

**Isabella,**

**If I haven`t heard from you by 5:30 p.m. today then I`m calling Charlie.**

**I checked the clock. I still had an hour, but my mom was well known for jumping the gun.**

**Mom,**

**Calm down. I`m writing now. Don`t do anything rash.**

**Bella.**

**I sent that, and began again.**

"Why did you do that?" Renesmee asked.

"If I sent that then my mom wouldn`t call Charlie. I then had enough time to write a proper e-mail without worrying about the time."

**Mom,**

**Everyone is great. Of course it`s raining. I was waiting for something to write about. School isn`t bad, just a little repetitive. I met some nice kids that sit by me at lunch. Your blouse is at the dry cleaners – you were supposed to pick it up Friday. Charlie brought me a truck, can you believe it? I love it. It`s old, but really sturdy, which is good, you know, for me. I miss you, too. I`ll write again soon, but I`m not going to check my e-mail every five minutes. Relax, breathe. I love you.**

**Bella.**

By the end of the e-mail, Bella was crying her heart out, tearlessly. Edward tried to calm her. Renesmee had never met her Grandma Renée and knew that the last time her mom had seen her was at her wedding. Renesmee knew she would never have lasted this long not being able to see her mom.

**I had decided to read **_**Wuthering Heights**_** – the novel we were currently studying in English – yet again for the fun of it, and that`s what I was doing when Charlie came home. I`d lost track of time, and I hurried downstairs to take the potatoes out and put the steak in to broil.**

"**Bella?" my father called out when he heard me on the stairs. Who else? I thought to myself.**

"**Hey, Dad, welcome home."**

"**Thanks." He hung up his gun belt and stepped out of his boots as I bustled about the kitchen. As far as I was aware, he`d never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready. When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door.**

"Thank God. Knowing you, it wouldn`t take much for you to injure yourself with a loaded gun lying around," Edward chuckled.

**I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot myself on purpose.**

At that comment Edward stiffened. "Please tell me you didn`t…" he managed to crock out.

"No." Bella still felt guilty though because of all the things she had done that could have killed her.

"**What`s for dinner?" he asked warily. My mother was an imaginative cook, and her experiments weren`t always edible. I was surprised, and sad, that he remembered that far back.**

"**Steak and potatoes," I answered, and he looked relieved. He seemed to feel awkward standing in the kitchen doing nothing; he lumbered into the living room to watch TV while I worked. We were both more comfortable that way. I made a salad while the steaks cooked, and set the table. I called him in when dinner was ready, and he sniffed the appreciatively as he walked into the room.**

"Whenever I came round after you had cooked something, I always wished I could actually eat," Edward smiled at her.

"**Smells good, Bell."**

"**Thanks." We ate in silence for a few minutes. It wasn`t uncomfortable. Neither of us was bothered by the quiet. In some ways, we were well suited for living together.**

"**So, how did you like school? Have you made any friends?" he asked as he was taking seconds.**

"**Well, I have a few classes with a girl named Jessica. I sit with her and her friends at lunch. And there`s this boy, Mike, who`s very friendly. Everyone seems pretty nice." With one outstanding exception.**

"Sorry," Edward apologised again.

"Stop apologising. I have forgiven you for everything," Bella told him. She let her shield down and showed him that she had even forgiven him for leaving her.

_I don`t deserve forgiveness for that _Edward thought.

"**That must be Mike Newton. Nice kid – nice family. His dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here."**

"And all the things we buy when we go hunting in the mountains," said Edward.

"**Do you know the Cullen family?" I asked hesitantly.**

"**Dr. Cullen`s family? Sure. Dr. Cullen`s a great man."**

"Thank you, Charlie."

"**They…the kids…are a little different. They don`t seem to fit in very well at school." Charlie surprised me by looking angry.**

"**People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here," he continued getting louder. "We`re lucky to have him – lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He`s an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. but they are all very mature – I haven`t had a speck of trouble with any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folk who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should – camping trips every other weekend…Just because they`re newcomers, people have to talk.**

"Well about Carslie being a good doctor, he`s had years and years of practice. You`ve never had any problems with us because I can tell when the police are near…" Edward explained.

"So is that why you have never got a speeding ticket, Daddy?" Renesmee asked.

"Yeah," he mumbled.

**It was the longest speech I`d ever heard Charlie make. He must feel strongly about whatever people were saying. I back-pedaled.**

"**They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they kept to themselves. They`re all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary.**

"**You should see the doctor," Charlie said, laughing. "It`s a good thing he`s happily married. A lot of nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around."**

"Thank you about all the nice things that you have said about our family," Esme smiled.

Charlie tried to hide the blush that was now forming on his face.

**We lapsed back into silence as we finished eating. He cleared the table while I started on the dishes. He went back to the TV, and after I finished washing the dishes by hand – no dishwasher – I went upstairs unwillingly to work on my math homework. I could feel a tradition in the making. That night it was finally quiet. I fell asleep quickly, exhausted. The rest of the week was uneventful.**

"That sounds so unlike you, Bella. Surely you must have injured yourself in some way?" Emmett joked.

"You do know I can go a week without having an injury. It`s very rare and I seem to injure myself twice as much the following week.

**I got used to the routine of my classes. By Friday I was able to recognize, if not name all the students at school. In Gym, the kids on my team learned not to pass me the ball and to step quickly in front of me if the other team tried to take advantage of my weakness. I happily stayed out of their way. Edward Cullen didn`t come back to school. Every day, I watched anxiously until the rest of the Cullens entered the cafereria without him. Then I could relax and join in the lunchtime conversation. Mostly it centered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in two weeks that Mike was putting together. I was invited, and I had agreed to go, more out of politeness than desire. Beaches should be hot and dry.**

"Is that beach not hot and dry then?" Renesmee asked.

"It was cold and raining there most of the time. That doesn`t really bother me now though." Bella told her.

**By Friday I was perfectly comfortable entering my Biology class, no longer worried that Edward Cullen would be there. For all I knew, he had dropped out of school. I tried not to think about him, but I couldn`t totally suppress the worry that I was responsible for his continued absence, ridiculous as it seemed.**

"No. I was just scared that the intensity of your scent had increased by me not having smelled it in a while."

**My first weekend in Forks passed without incident. Charlie, unused to spending time in the usually empty house, worked most of the weekend. I cleaned the house, got ahead on my homework, and wrote my mom more bogusly cheerful e-mail. I did drive to the library Saturday, but it was so poorly stocked that I didn`t bother to get a card; I would have to make a date to visit Olympia or Seattle soon and find a good bookstore.**

Edward and Bella both shuddered at the memory of when Bella went off on her own to find a bookstore.

**I wondered idly what kind of gas mileage the truck got…and shuddered at the thought. The rain stayed soft over the weekend, quiet, so I was able to sleep well. People greeted me in the parking lot Monday morning. I didn`t know all their names, but I waved back and smiled at everyone. It was colder this morning, but happily not raining.**

"Why do you hate the rain so much," Renesmee asked.

"It`s dark and depressing and means that my clothes smell of damp all day."

**In English, Mike took his accustomed seat by my side. We had a pop quiz on **_**Wuthering Heights**_**. It was straightforward, very easy.**

"It was easy for you because you must have read that book at least a hundred times," Edward told her.

**All in all, I was feeling a lot more comfortable than I had thought I would feel by this point. More comfortable than I had ever expected to feel here. When we walked out of class, the air was full of swirling bits of white. I could hear people shouting excitedly to each other. The wind bit at my cheeks, my nose.**

"**Wow," Mike said. "It`s snowing." I looked at the little cotton fluffs that were building up along the sidewalk and swirling erratically past my face.**

"**Ew." Snow. There went my good day. He looked surprised.**

"**Don`t you like snow?"**

"**No. that means that it`s too cold for rain." Obviously. "Besides, I thought it was supposed to come down in flakes – you know, each one unique and all that. These just look like the ends of Q-tips."**

"You do know they only look like that under a microscope," Jasper told her kindly.

"Well I know that now," Bella sighed.

"**Haven`t you ever seen snow fall before?" he asked incredulously.**

"**Sure I have." I paused. "On TV."**

Everyone laughed at that.

"I always stayed indoors on the rare occasion that it snowed," Bella pouted.

**Mike laughed. And then a big, squishy ball of dripping snow smacked into the back of his head.**

"Yes!" Edward yelled, startling everyone in the room. "I`ve always wanted to do that," Edward mumbled, meaning throwing the snowball.

**We both turned to see where it had come from. I had my suspicions about Eric, who was walking away, his back toward us – in the wrong direction for his next class. Mike apparently had the same notion. He bent over and began scraping together a pile of the white mush.**

"**I`ll see you at lunch, okay?" I kept walking as I spoke. "Once people start throwing wet stuff, I go inside."**

Edward chuckled. Bella stared at him. "It`s just the way that you seem to avoid saying snow." Before long, Bella was giggling along with him.

**He just nodded, his eyes on Eric`s retreating figure. Throughout the morning, everyone chattered excitedly about the snow; apparently it was the first snowfall of the new year. I kept my mouth shut. Sure, it was drier than rain – until it melted in your socks. I walked alertly to the cafeteria with Jessica after Spanish. Mush balls were flying everywhere.**

"Can we have a mush-ball fight next time it snows?" Renesmee asked Emmett.

"Of course and we could try and hit your mom."

**I kept a binder in my hands, ready to use it as a shield if necessary. Jessica thought I was hilarious, but something in my expression kept her from lobbing a snowball at me herself. Mike caught up with us as we walked in the doors, laughing, with ice melting the spikes in his hair. He and Jessica were talking animatedly about the snow fight as we got in line to buy food. I glanced toward that table in the corner out of habit. And then I froze where I stood. There were five people at the table.**

Renesmee stared daggers at her father. Edward hung his head in shame. He looked as if he could cry. Bella, after picking up on Edwards's sudden change of mood, shook her head at her daughter. Reluctantly, Renesmee stopped and tightened her grip on Charlie to stop her from doing anything rash.

**Jessica pulled on my arm.**

"**Hello? Bella? What do you want?" I looked down; my ears were hot. I had no reason to feel self-conscious, I reminded myself. I hadn`t done anything wrong.**

"**What`s with Bella?" Mike asked Jessica.**

"**Nothing," I answered. "I`ll just get a soda today." I caught up with the end of the line.**

"**Aren`t you hungry?" Jessica asked.**

"**Actually, I feel a little sick," I said, my eyes still on the floor. I waited for them to get their food, and then followed them to a table, my eyes on my feet. I sipped my soda slowly, my stomach churning. Twice Mike asked, with unnecessary concern, how I was feeling. I told him it was nothing, but I was wondering if I **_**should**_** play it up and escape to the nurse`s office for the next hour.**

"I`m so sorry," Edward mumbled over and over again. Bella knew that he was saying this to Nessie because she had already forgiven him for everything.

**Ridiculous. I shouldn`t have to run away. I decided to permit myself one glance at the Cullen family`s table. If he was glaring at me, I would skip Biology, like the coward I was.**

"I would have done the same," Alice told Bella kindly.

**I kept my head down and glanced up under my lashes. None of them were looking this way. I lifted my head a little. They were laughing.**

"If I remember correctly, Emmett tried to through a snowball at me using his full strength. I deflected it and the snowball made a few tiles in the wall crack," Rosalie giggled.

**Edward, Jasper and Emmett all had their hair entirely saturated with melting snow. Alice and Rosalie were leaning away as Emmett shook his dripping hair toward them.**

"That was disgusting," Alice smiled.

**They were enjoying the snowy day, just like everyone else – only they looked more like a scene from a movie than the rest of us. But aside from the laughter and playfulness, there was something different, and I couldn`t quite pinpoint what it was. I examined Edward the most carefully. His skin was less pale, I decided – flushed from the snow fight maybe – and the circles under his eyes were much less noticeable. But there was something more. I pondered, staring, trying to isolate the change.**

"**Bella, what are you staring at?" Jessica intruded, her eyes following my stare.**

"If she hadn`t interrupted me I would have got it quicker," Bella complained.

**At that precise moment, his eyes flashed over to meet mine. I dropped my head, letting my hair fall to conceal my face. I was sure, though, in the instance that our eyes met, that he didn`t look harsh or unfriendly as he had the last time I`d seen him. He looked merely curious again, unsatisfied in some way.**

"I just couldn`t understand why I could read everyone`s minds but yours."

"**Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica giggled in my ear.**

"**He doesn`t look angry, does he?" I couldn`t help asking.**

"**No," she said, sounding confused by my question. "Should he be?"**

"**I don`t think he likes me," I confided. I still felt queasy. I put my head down on my arm.**

"**The Cullens don`t like anybody…well, they don`t notice anybody enough to like them. But he`s still staring at you."**

"How come you didn`t try to make friends with anyone?" Charlie asked.

"We didn`t want them to find out what we are. Making friends only put the people at risk," Edward explained.

"Then how come you became friends with Bella?" Charlie asked, getting confused.

"I warned her multiple times to not become too close to me but she was too stubborn for her own good. Not that I`m complaining or anything…" Edward drifted off, pulling his family closer.

"**Stop looking at him," I hissed.** **She snickered, but she looked away. I raised my head enough to make sure that she did, contemplating violence if she resisted.**

"Bella, you're not violent," Charlie argued.

In the next second Bella was behind Charlie with her fangs at his neck. Straightaway moving to Emmett who had just tried to throw a pillow at Renesmee. She then wacked him round the face several times. Emmett knew that he would have had a black eye had he been human. Bella then sat back down in her seat with a small smile playing on her lips.

"Remind me never to hurt Nessie again," Emmett joked, rubbing his jaw.

**Mike interrupted us then – he was planning an epic battle of the blizzard in the parking lot after school and wanted us to join. Jessica agreed enthusiastically. The way she looked at Mike left little doubt that she would be up to anything he suggested. I kept silent. I would have to hide in the gym until the parking lot cleared. For the rest of the lunch hour I very carefully kept my eyes at my own table. I decided to honour the bargain I`d made with myself. Since he didn`t look angry, I would go to Biology. My stomach did frightened little flips at the thought of sitting next to him again.**

"Turned out I had nothing to fear and you turned out to be a perfect gentleman," Bella told Edward in the hope that Renesmee would listen.

**I didn`t really want to walk to class with Mike as usual – he seemed to be a popular target for the snowball snipers – but when we went to the door, everyone besides me groaned in unison. It was raining, washing all traces of the snow away in clear, icy ribbons down the side of the walkway.**

"It was the first, and most probably last, time that I was ever glad it rained," Bella sighed.

**I pulled my hood up, secretly pleased. I would be free to go home straight after Gym. Mike kept up a string of complaints on the way to building four. Once inside the classroom, I saw with relief that my table was still empty. Mr. Banner was walking around the room, distributing one microscope and a box of slides to each table. Class didn`t start for a few minutes, and the room buzzed with conversation.**

"It was definitely about the snow," Bella told everyone.

**I kept my eyes away from the door, doodling idly on the cover of my notebook. I heard very clearly when the chair next to me moved, but my eyes stayed carefully focused on the pattern I was drawing.**

"**Hello," said a quiet, musical voice. I looked up, stunned that he was speaking to me. He was sitting as far away from me as the desk allowed, but his chair was angled toward me.**

"Why?" Charlie asked.

"I was sitting far away from her so her sent wasn`t so overpowering, and I angled my chair toward her so I could talk to her and it inclined that I wanted to be friends, that I wanted her to forgive my passed actions," Edward explained.

**His hair was dripping wet, dishevelled – even so, he looked like he`d just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a light smile on his flawless lips.**

"Bella, your describing him like he`s already your boyfriend," Rosalie giggled.

"Ah. Does Bells have a crush?" Emmett joked.

Bella just stuck her tongue out at them.

**But his eyes were careful.**

"**My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn`t have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan." My mind was spinning with confusion. Had I made up the whole thing?**

"Even with your amazing imagination, Bella, you wouldn`t be able to make up that," Charlie told his daughter.

**He was perfectly polite now. I had to speak; he was waiting. But I couldn`t think of anything conventional to say.**

"**H-how do you know my name?" I stammered. He laughed a soft, enchanting laugh.**

"**Oh, I think everyone knows your name. the whole town`s been waiting for you to arrive." I grimaced. I knew it was something like that.**

"**No," I persisted stupidly. "I meant, why did you call me Bella?"**

"And this is the point Edward curses himself for not thinking," Emmett told everyone.

"I wasn`t thinking. Talking to Bella just felt so natural," Edward told Emmett.

**He seemed confused. "Do you prefer Isabella?"**

"**No, I like Bella," I said. "But I think Charlie – I mean my dad – must call me Isabella behind my back – that`s what everyone here seems to know me as," I tried to explain, feeling like an utter moron.**

"That made two of us then," Edward told her gently.

"**Oh." He let it drop. I looked away awkwardly. Thankfully, Mr. Banner started class at that moment. I tried to concentrate as he explained the lab we would be doing today. The slides in the box were out of order. Working as lab partners, we had to separate the slides of the onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they represented and label them accordingly. We weren`t supposed to use our books. In twenty minutes, he would be coming around to see who had it right.**

"Easiest lab ever," Edward and Bella smiled.

"**Get started," he commanded.**

"**Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare like an idiot.**

"**Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent.**

"**No," I said flushing. "I`ll go ahead." I was showing off, just a little. I`d already done this lab, and I knew what I was looking for. It should be easy.**

"That is so unfair!" Emmett yelled.

"How?" Edward asked.

"He put the two people who had done it before together," he whined. "He should at least have given the others a chance."

Edward just shook his head at Emmett.

**I snapped the first slide under the microscope and adjusted it quickly to the 40X objective. I studied the slide briefly. My assessment was confident.**

"**Prophase."**

"**Do you mind if I look?" he asked as I began to remove the slide. His hand caught mine, to stop me, as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold, like he`d been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn`t why I jerked my hand away so quickly.**

"Why did you then?" Esme asked, confused.

**When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us.**

Everyone began to wolf whistle. Out of habit Bella buried her face in the crook of Edward`s neck.

"**I`m sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand back immediately. However, he continued to reach for the microscope. I watched him, still staggered, as he examined the slide for an even shorter time than I had.**

"**Prophase," he agreed, writing it neatly in the first space on our worksheet. He swiftly switched out the first slide for the second, and then glanced at it cursorily.**

"**Anaphase," he murmured, writing it down as he spoke. I kept my voice indifferent.**

"**May I?" He smirked and pushed the microscope to me. I looked through the eyepiece eagerly, only to be disappointed. Dang it, he was right.**

"You spent the whole of that lab trying to prove the other right?" Jasper checked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Edward chuckled.

"**Slide three?" I held out my hand without looking at him. He handed it to me; it seemed like he was being careful not to touch my skin again. I took the most fleeting look I could manage.**

"**Interphase." I passed him the microscope before he could ask for it. He took a swift peek, and then wrote it down. I would have written it while he looked, but his clear, elegant script intimidated me. I didn`t want to spoil the page with my clumsy scrawl. We were finished before anyone else was close.**

"Why are we not surprised?" Emmett snickered.

**I could see Mike and his partner comparing two slides again and again, and another group had their book open under the table.**

"The teacher should have collected all the books in first so no one could use them," Renesmee thought.

**Which left me with nothing to do but to try not to look at him…unsuccessfully. I glanced up, and he was staring at me, that same inexplicable look of frustration in his eyes. Suddenly I identified the subtle difference in his face.**

"**Did you get contacts?" I blurted out unthinkingly. He seemed puzzled by my unexpected question.**

"**No."**

"Should have lied…" all the vampires in the room murmured.

"**Oh," I mumbled. "I thought there was something different about your eyes." He shrugged, and looked away. In fact, I was sure there was something different. I vividly remembered the flat black colour of his eyes the last time he`d glared at me – the colour was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different colour: a strange ochre, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone. I didn`t understand how that could be, unless he was lying for some reason about the contacts. Or maybe Forks was making me crazy in the literal sense of the world.**

"At the time, I would have liked you to think of the latter reason and go back to Phoenix," Edward told her.

**I looked down. His hands were clenched into hard fists again**.

"I had just caught your scent; only it was a lot stronger than it had been that day. I was trying to control myself," Edward explained.

"Well, I didn`t make it easy for you," Bella told him.

**Mr. Banner came to our table then, to see why we weren`t working. He looked over our shoulders to glance at the completed lab, and then stared more intently to check the answers.**

"**So, Edward, didn`t you think Isabella should get a chance with the microscope?" Mr. Banner asked.**

"I happened to take offence to that. He was basically calling me dumb," Bella stated.

"**Bella," Edward corrected automatically. "Actually, she identified three of the five." Mr. Banner looked at me now; his expression was sceptical.**

"**Have you done this lab before?" he asked. I smiled sheepishly.**

"**Not with onion root."**

"**Whitefish blastula?"**

"**Yeah." Mr. Banner nodded.**

"**Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?"**

"**Yes."**

"Wow Bella. That`s so cool," Alice cried. "I mean the only reason we`re in top groups, is because we have covered the topics loads of times."

"**Well," he said after a moment, "I guess it`s good you two are lab partners." He mumbled something else as he walked away.**

"You heard what he said, didn`t you?" Bella questioned Edward.

"I did but I have forgotten," Edward answered.

**After he left, I began doodling on my notebook again.**

"**It`s too bad about the snow, isn`t it?" Edward asked. I had the feeling that he was forcing himself to make small talk with me. Paranoia swept over me again. It was like he had heard my conversation with Jessica at lunch and was trying to prove me wrong.**

"I had heard your conversation but I was just trying to figure you out, not prove you wrong," Edward explained.

"**Not really," I answered honestly, instead of pretending to be normal like everyone else.**

"Normal is boring," Edward told her, honestly.

**I was still trying to dislodge the stupid feeling of suspicion, and I couldn`t concentrate.**

"**You don`t like the cold." It wasn`t a question.**

"**Or the wet."**

"**Forks must be a difficult place for you to live," he mused.**

"**You have no idea," I muttered darkly. He looked fascinated by what I said, for some reason I couldn`t imagine. His face was such a distraction that I tried not to look at it any more than courtesy absolutely demanded.**

"Aw," the whole room sighed.

"**Why did you come here, then?" No one had asked me that – not straight out like he did, demanding.**

"Sorry. That was rude," Edward apologised.

"That`s ok. It was nice to get it off my chest."

"**It`s…complicated."**

"**I think I can keep up," he pressed. I paused for a long moment, and then made the mistake of meeting his gaze. His dark gold eyes confused me, and I answered without thinking.**

"That`s all we need to do to get you to let me and Nessie have a pillow fight?" Emmett gasped. "Just ask you when your staring into Eddie`s eyes?" He then went deep into thought.

"**My mother got remarried," I said.**

"**That doesn`t sound so complex," he disagreed, but he was suddenly sympathetic.**

"It took all my self-control not to hug you," Edward whispered in her ear.

"You can hug me through these books all you like," Bella told him.

"**When did that happen?"**

"**Last September." My voice sounded sad, even to me.**

"**And you don`t like him," Edward surmised, his tone still kind.**

"**No, Phil is fine. Too young, maybe, but nice enough."**

"**Why didn`t you stay with them?" I couldn`t fathom his interest, but he continue to stare at me with penetrating eyes, as if my dull life`s story was somehow vitally important.**

"I told you, I was trying to figure you out. Still am, if I`m honest."

"**Phil travels a lot. He plays ball for a living." I half-smiled.**

"**Have I heard of him?" he asked, smiling in response.**

"**Probably not. He doesn`t play **_**well**_**. Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot."**

"**And your mother sent you here so she could travel with him." He said it as an assumption again, not a question.**

"Stop being a smart arse and let her finish!" Renesmee yelled.

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen, don`t you dare speak to your father like that again and never use that language in front of me," Bella told her daughter, her voice dangerously quiet. At the end, Bella turned to glare at Emmett, who was trying to hide behind Rosalie. "And you can stop teaching my daughter those words." She then motioned for Charlie to continue reading.

**My chin raised a fraction. "No, she did not send me here. I sent myself."**

**His eyebrows knit together. "I don`t understand," he admitted, and he seemed unnecessarily frustrated by that fact. I sighed. Why was I explaining this to him? He continued to stare at me with obvious curiosity.**

"**She stayed with me at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy…so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie." My voice was glum by the time I finished.**

"**But now your unhappy," he pointed out.**

"**And?" I challenged.**

"**That doesn`t seem fair." He shrugged, but his eyes were still intense.**

**I laughed without humour. "Hasn`t anyone told you? Life isn`t fair."**

"**I believe I **_**have**_** heard that somewhere before," he agreed dryly.**

"**So that`s all," I insisted, wondering why he was still staring at me that way. His gaze became appraising.**

"**You put on a good show," he said slowly. "But I`d be willing to bet that you`re suffering more than you let anyone see."**

**I grimaced at him, resisting the impulse to stick out my tongue like a five-year-old, and looked away.**

"Aw, is Bella sulking?" Emmett teased.

"Maybe, but I also looked away so I could think clearer if he asked me anymore questions."

"**Am I wrong?" I tried to ignore him.**

"**I didn`t think so," he murmured smugly.**

"**Why does it matter to **_**you**_**?" I asked, irritated. I kept my eyes away, watching the teacher make his rounds.**

"**That`s a very good question," he muttered, so quietly that I wondered if he was talking to himself. However, after a few seconds of silence, I decided that was the only answer I was going to get. I sighed, scowling at the blackboard.**

"**Am I annoying you?" he asked sounding amused.**

"Just say yes and tell him to put a sock in it," Emmett pleaded.

**I glanced at him without thinking… and told the truth again. "Not exactly. I`m more annoyed with myself. My face is so easy to read – my mother always calls me her open book." I frowned.**

"**On the contrary, I find you very difficult to read."**

"That`s because she`s a shield!" Emmett sang.

**Despite everything that I`d said and he`d guessed, he sounded like he meant it.**

"**You must be a good reader then," I replied.**

"**Usually." He smiled widely, flashing a set of perfect, ultra-white teeth. Mr. Banner called the class to order then, and I turned with relief to listen. I was in disbelief that I`d just explained my dreary life to this bizarre, beautiful boy who may or may not despise me.**

"I`m sorry if I confused you. I was going through some new emotions," Edward told her.

"Me too, baby, me too," Bella sighed.

**He`d seemed engrossed in our conversation, but now I could see, from the corner of my eye, that he was leaning away from me again, his hands gripping the edge of the table with unmistakable tension. I tried to appear attentive as Mr. Banner illustrated, with transparencies on the overhead projector, what I had seen without difficultly through the microscope. But my thoughts were unmanageable.**

"Like you were trying to figure me out, I was trying to figure you out," Bella told Edward.

**When the bell finally rang, Edward rushed as swiftly and as gracefully from the room as he had last Monday. And, like last Monday, I stared after him in amazement. Mike skipped quickly to my side and picked up my books for me. I imagined him with a wagging tail.**

All the Cullens who had known Mike, burst out laughing at that.

"**That was awful," he groaned. "They all looked exactly the same. You`re lucky you had Cullen for a partner."**

"I got pretty fed up at the fact that people didn`t think I was clever," Bella sulked. Edward kissed the top of her head and she calmed down.

"**I didn`t have any trouble with it," I said, stung by his assumption. I regretted the snub instantly. "I`ve done the lab before, though," I added before he could get his feelings hurt.**

"**Cullen seemed friendly enough today," he commented as we shrugged into our raincoats. He didn`t seemed pleased about it.**

"Of course he wasn`t. He was scared that he might have some competition," Edward snarled.

**I tried to sound indifferent. "I wonder what was with him last Monday." I couldn`t concentrate on Mike`s chatter as we walked to Gym, and P.E. didn`t do much to hold my attention, either. Mike was on my team today. He chivalrously covered my position as well as his own, so my wool-gathering was only interrupted when it was my turn to serve; my team ducked out of the way every time I was up.**

Bella groaned.

"I`m sure you weren`t that bad Mom," Renesmee said as she tried to comfort her.

"No darling, I was worse," Bella smiled.

**The rain was just a mist as I walked to the parking lot, but I was happier when I was in the dry cab. I got the heater running, for once not caring about the mind-numbing roar of the engine. I unzipped my jacket, put the hood down, and fluffed my damp hair out so the heater could dry it on the way home. I looked around me to make sure it was clear. That`s when I noticed the still, white figure. Edward Cullen was leaning against the front door of the Volvo, three cars down from me, and staring intently in my direction.**

Bella gave her husband the 'why?' look.

"I was still trying to figure you out, figure my feelings out for you. For some reason I wanted to see if you were ok."

**I swiftly looked away and threw the truck into reverse, almost hitting a rusty Toyota Corolla in my haste. Lucky for the Toyota, I stomped on the brake in time.**

"You nearly gave me a heart attack," Edward told her. "I would never have forgiven myself because I would have been the cause of the accident."

**It was just the sort of car that my truck would make scrap metal of. I took a deep breath, still looking out the other side of my car, and cautiously pulled out again, with greater success. I stared straight ahead as I passed the Volvo, put from a peripheral peek, I would swear I saw him laughing.**

"Why were you laughing?" Charlie demanded.

"All day I had heard that people though that Bella was clumsy and I had never noticed. Not to see actually how clumsy she was made me laugh or smile every time she would be clumsy."

"Ok. That was the end of the chapter," Charlie announced.

"Let`s have lunch then we can continue the story afterward," Bella suggested. Everyone nodded and Bella and Esme went into the kitchen.

* * *

**So how was that? Please tell me what you think. If you have any ideas then please tell me because others may have the same idea. I can`t explain how happy it makes me when you favourite and follow me and my stories! I will try to update as soon as possible.**

**musicmadgirl22**


End file.
